On September 21 2022, Fivot, which aims to become a challenger bank in Japan, announced that it raised approximately 1 billion yen ($7M) in a series A round.

Angel Bridge led the round with the participation of SBI Investment, SuMi TRUST Innovation Fund, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking, SMBC Venture Capital, Shinsei Corporate Investment, and Sony Innovation Fund.

Fivot is a fintech startup that operates Flex Capital, a lending for startups, and IDARE, a personal accumulation investment app. Shogo Abe and Yuriko Saho, both from Merrill Lynch Japan, co-founded the company in October 2019 with the vision of "financial services that matches the times with ideas and technologies."

For "Flex Capital", Fivot is developing several debt-based products for startups to fill the gap between "equity financing" and "bank loans,” including invoice replacement, revenue based finance, and venture debt.

Fivot use this capital for the growth of “Flex Capital” and provide a flexible financing environment for startups that take on new challenges. Fivot aims to provide a total of 5 billion yen in loans over the next year. Yutaro Kawanishi, a general partner at Angel Bridge, said the following:

“Fivot has made great strides in the year since our last investment. We believe that Fivot's ‘Flex Capital’ will continue to be an industry leader and drive the growth of the whole venture industry in Japan. We at Angel Bridge will continue to support Fivot's challenges.”

Fivot’s company profile is here:
https://protocol.ooo/en/companies/fivot